Brown bears live across portions of three continents: North America, Europe, and Asia. They currently occupy roughly 5 million square kilometers in northwestern North America, 1.2 million square kilometers in Europe (not counting Russia), and vast stretches of northern Asia. In total, brown bears are resident in 45 countries, with Russia holding the largest population, followed by Alaska and Canada.
Range in North America
Alaska is the brown bear stronghold of North America, with dense populations along the southern coast where salmon runs and mild temperatures create ideal conditions. The Kodiak brown bear, the largest subspecies, lives exclusively on the Kodiak Archipelago, a cluster of islands including Kodiak, Afognak, Shuyak, and several smaller ones off Alaska’s southern coast.
In the lower 48 U.S. states, brown bears (called grizzly bears) occupy a fraction of their former range. They once roamed the entire western half of the contiguous United States and into central Mexico. Today, at least 1,923 grizzlies remain in the lower 48, concentrated in a few pockets: the Greater Yellowstone area of northwestern Wyoming, eastern Idaho, and southwestern Montana (about 727 bears); north-central Montana’s Northern Continental Divide (about 1,092); and small numbers in the Cabinet-Yaak area of northwestern Montana and the Selkirk Mountains of northern Idaho and northeast Washington. Two historically occupied zones, the North Cascades of Washington and the Bitterroot Mountains of central Idaho, currently have no known populations.
In Canada, grizzlies range across British Columbia, Alberta, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, with British Columbia supporting the densest populations south of Alaska.
Range in Europe
Europe’s brown bear populations are scattered and often isolated from one another. The largest continuous population stretches across Scandinavia, with bears in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Romania holds one of the biggest populations in central Europe, with bears also present in neighboring Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, and Serbia. The Dinaric-Pindos population connects Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, and Greece. Smaller and more vulnerable groups survive in the Alps (spanning Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia), the Spanish Pyrenees and Cantabrian Mountains, and the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia.
Many of these European populations only persist because of active conservation programs. The Alpine and Pyrenean bears, for example, were nearly extirpated and have been slowly rebuilt through reintroductions over the past few decades.
Range in Asia and the Middle East
Russia holds more brown bears than any other country, with populations spanning Siberia, the Russian Far East, and Kamchatka. Beyond Russia, brown bears live in Mongolia, China, Japan (on the northern island of Hokkaido), and across the Central Asian mountain ranges of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
Turkey’s northeastern Anatolia region is the core of the southwest Asian population, with more than 2,000 individuals and greater genetic diversity than the smaller, more isolated groups in neighboring Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Bears also survive in parts of Iran and Iraq, and the Himalayan brown bear clings to existence in narrow mountain corridors of Pakistan, India, and Nepal. In Pakistan, Deosai National Park is the last remaining stronghold for this subspecies.
Habitats They Prefer
Brown bears are habitat generalists, but their needs shift with the seasons. In spring, they gravitate toward low-elevation south-facing slopes, riparian forests, and wetlands where the first green vegetation appears. During summer, they move into mid-elevation meadows and river bottoms for berries and herbaceous plants. In fall, coastal bears concentrate along rivers for spawning salmon, while interior bears shift to alpine and subalpine berry patches. Winter sends most brown bears into hibernation dens on steep, high-elevation slopes that provide insulation, structural stability for digging, and protection from disturbance.
Den altitude varies widely depending on geography, averaging anywhere from about 430 meters to nearly 2,700 meters above sea level across studied populations. Females tend to den at higher elevations on steeper slopes, which offer better thermal conditions for a longer denning period.
How Much Space They Need
A brown bear’s home range depends almost entirely on food availability. In salmon-rich coastal areas of Alaska, bears may need only about 10.5 square miles because high-calorie food is densely packed. In the interior Brooks Range, where food is more spread out, an adult male’s average home range balloons to roughly 521 square miles. These ranges also shift from year to year based on berry crops, salmon runs, and other food fluctuations.
A Much Smaller Range Than Before
Brown bears once occupied a far larger territory. In North America, grizzlies ranged from the Pacific coast to the Great Plains and south into Mexico. Habitat loss, hunting, and human expansion eliminated them from most of this range by the early 1900s. In Europe, brown bears were once found across nearly the entire continent, from the British Isles to the Mediterranean. Today they survive in fragmented populations that together cover a small fraction of that original territory.
Globally, the species is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN because the total population is large and widespread. But that status masks the reality that many individual populations, particularly in southern and western Europe, the Middle East, and the Himalayas, are small, isolated, and vulnerable to local extinction.